Waraji
by Mymomomo
Summary: Rangiku knew that her captain had a few little quirks, but things get out of hand when she tries to break a bad habit of his. No one ever wins when the Captain and Lieutenant of the 10th division get into an argument.


**Hey everyone! Yay new story! Time and Again has been taking up most of my writing time but I found this on my computer. I remember writing it a while back, but never finishing it. So I gave Hyoka a little break and decided to finish this and fix it up a bit. Hope you like it :)**

* * *

"Captain, where are your waraji?" Rangiku lazily asked from the couch. She could see the tips of her captain's feet swinging under his desk.

He paused in the middle of singing a form and glanced at her. He seemed to consider her question for a while before shrugging and getting back to his work.

Rangiku sighed, "You lost them, didn't you?"

He shot her a stiff glare. "I did not lose them; I'm not some immature child, who can't keep track of his things."

"Then where are they?" she asked, pointedly raising an eyebrow.

He broke eye contact and hurriedly went back to his work. "Go do your work, Matsumoto, and stop pestering me about my waraji."

"I'm not doing any work until you answer my question," she folded her arms across her chest.

He shot her a withering glance, "Just let it rest, Matsumoto."

"I knew it, you lost them!" she exclaimed, jumping up from the couch and putting her hands on her hips. "Captain, that's the third pair in two months!"

He scowled, "I did not lose them. They'll turn up eventually."

"Or you mean someone's bound to return them." she rolled her eyes. "I thought you learnt the last two times, Captain, you can't leave your stuff lying around like that."

"I don't understand why someone would steal something that they obviously can't use. They'll turn up, Matsumoto. Now go do your work."

"And you say you're not a child." she muttered heading over to her desk.

Since the beginning she had noticed that Toushiro never wore his waraji inside the division. Yes, it was custom to take off one's shoes when entering a house but that custom was never really followed in The Seireitei. She only took off her waraji whenever she entered the barracks. But, for Toushiro – being the stickler for rules that he was – taking of his shoes was a reflex, really. As soon as he got back from a mission or something off went his shoes.

It would not have been that much of a problem if he put them in one place like the office or his room, but he just left them any and everywhere. If Rangiku wasn't there to pick them up after he would often forget where he left them and have to get a spare pair in his room. Luckily, most of the time one of the division members would see the waraji lying around and drop them off at the office. They knew as well as Rangiku did that the captain left his shoes around and would just return them to save a lot of trouble.

Toushiro's feet were the smallest in the division, so it was easy to tell his waraji from everyone else's. (He also never had a problem identifying his uniform in the wash, whereas, everyone else had at least once gotten a kodose or hakama that wasn't theirs.) This was getting ridiculous, though. He had lost three pairs of shoes in two months. More than likely he had left them outside and they had gotten ruined so someone threw them away or they had been stolen by an animal. She shook her head; hopefully this wouldn't be the fourth pair he lost. Plus, his waraji had to be specially made because his feet were so small. Getting new shoes for him wasn't as easy as for everyone else. She shook her head, she felt like a mother sometimes. On missions she had to cook the food and teach him how to do simple chores. She also found herself always keeping an eye out for him even for everyday stuff. She didn't let him on to this of course. So, here she was worrying about shoes... for her captain.

"What are you laughing at? Get to work, Matsumoto." he growled. After ten minutes she still hadn't made any moves to start filling out her forms.

"You know, Captain, we wouldn't have this problem if you just wore your waraji inside the division." she said thoughtfully.

He exhaled forcefully, "Will you drop the subject? I told you they'll turn up sooner or later."

"Sure they will."

He banged his fist against the desk. "Get to work!"

Fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the door. That would be the shoes, Rangiku thought with a roll of her eyes.

Toushiro paused in his work. "Enter."

Sure enough there was a man on the other side with a pair of small waraji in his left hand. Rangiku sent a pointed glance towards Toushiro. He ignored her and addressed the man.

"Thank you, soldier. You can just leave them by the door-"

"Where were they?" Rangiku cut him off.

Toushiro fumed silently at his desk. He clutched his brush so tightly he could hear the wood splinter. Why wouldn't she just drop it? Sure, he left his shoes lying about. But what was the big deal, they were just shoes? It wasn't as if they were actually important. Now, if he left Hyourinmaru lying around that would be a different problem. He couldn't understand why she was making such a big deal about it.

"They were on the north patio by the training fields, Lieutenant." he glanced at Toushiro. "Captain Hitsugaya must have left them there after the sparring lesson yesterday evening."

The white haired boy growled under his breath. "Thank you. Just leave them by the door."

The man bowed, "Yes, Captain."

When he left Toushiro rubbed his forehead and turned to his lieutenant. "What did I tell you? Now can we just drop this issue?"

She frowned. "Of course not, Captain, you need to care for your things better than this."

"They're shoes, Matsumoto."

She waved her finger. "They're not just shoes! If you can leave little things just lying around how can you manage a division?"

"Are you seriously trying to lecture _me_ on responsibility? Like you're one to talk; I have to remind you to _breathe_ most of the time." He snorted. He was the organiser of the pair. If things were left to Rangiku everything would go to hell.

"That's and exaggeration and you know it, Captain."

"It may be, but it's not too far from the truth."

She shook her head and sighed, "Fine, Captain, one day you're going to lose all of you waraji and then we'll see what happens."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh please, Matsumoto, that's impossible."

She narrowed her eyes, an idea forming in her head. _That's impossible? Captain, we'll see about that._

("\(^.^)/")

"Captain, where are your waraji?" Rangiku smirked as Toushiro walked into the office in his tabi. She was lounging on her favourite sofa.

He raised an eyebrow and she instantly knew he was pissed. She patted herself on the back. This was bound to teach him a lesson. Last night she had snuck into his room and stolen all his waraji. Maybe then he would learn to take better care of his stuff.

"Get to work, Matsumoto." he growled. "If you're here this early for once, then you might as well do something useful."

"But you didn't answer my question, Captain. You didn't lose them again did you?"

He glowered at her. "You asked me the same question yesterday. Give it a rest."

She snapped her fingers, "I knew it, you can't find them! I told you this was going to happen, and now look, you're shoe-less."

He ground his teeth together. "Get. To. Work. Now."

She giggled inwardly. This was going to be so good.

Toushiro started every time there was a knock on the office door, hoping secretly that someone would bring back his waraji. He had no idea that the ones he misplaced yesterday were his last pair. Now, he had no more shoes and he couldn't even remember where he had left the ones he was wearing yesterday. How could he have lost all of them? He could have sworn that he had three more pairs in his room. But he couldn't find any that morning when he got dressed. And now Rangiku was rubbing it in his face. Yeah, she was right, he needed to keep better tabs on his shoes, but he would rather die than tell her that.

However, no one came to the office with his waraji. The paperwork was delivered, new intelligence came in and he had never been more aware of how many people knocked on the office door. But his shoes were not with any one of them. He huffed in frustration and hoped that he wouldn't have to leave the division until he located at least one pair. Everyone in the tenth was used to him walking around without waraji but if he saw another captain or the Head-captain he knew he would be reprimanded for not wearing his full uniform. He would go look for them as soon as he finished this pile of paperwork.

Rangiku was trying her very best not to laugh at her captain's predicament. He looked so hopeful every time someone knocked on the door, only to have his shoulders slump a few moments later. It was kind of cute actually. She would give him back his waraji at the end of the day, though, as long as he learnt his lesson.

("\(^.^)/")

"Matsumoto, there is a piece of glass lodged in my foot."

He was surprisingly calm about the entire situation, Rangiku mused. He was simply standing with his right foot slightly raised off the ground and staring at the broken vase. Well, he had been through much worse than this. A broken decorative pot would not deter him much, even if it was stuck in his foot. She winced as she noticed a red splotch begin to grow on his white tabi.

"I told you not to come in here," she muttered as she went to find a broom, "especially since you don't have shoes on."

He growled low in his throat. "Well, you should have told me why. There was a crash and you screamed. Did you really expect me to wait outside the door?"

She sighed. "Go sit down, before you hurt yourself even more."

He grumbled as he hopped over to a chair. Rangiku shook her head. She had left the office to make tea for the two of them and had accidently knocked over a vase. Who in their right mind would have put a vase behind a cupboard door? It was begging to be knocked over in that position. Toushiro heard the crash from the office and had come to see what had happened. He just also happened to step right on a shard of glass, and since he was in nothing but his tabi, it had gone straight into his foot.

She quickly swept up the rest of the glass and threw the pieces into the garbage bin before turning to Toushiro. He was sitting calmly watching her. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Okay, we need to fix you up now." she sighed.

"There are some medical supplies in the office." he muttered, hoping off the chair onto his good foot.

Rangiku felt a little guilty as she watched him gingerly put his other foot down and limp over to the door. She had knocked over the vase and stolen his waraji. Stealing his waraji was to teach him a lesson; the vase had been an accident. Still, it had not been her intention to injure him. What if his foot got infected or the glass had cut through a tendon? She chewed her bottom lip; it would have been all her fault. Maybe stealing his waraji had been a little too drastic; she could have just talked to him about it or maybe have gotten some of the division members to bring it up as well. Why didn't she ever think her plans through? Well, the least she could do was to help him out after this.

("\(^.^)/")

Higurashi Sendai and Muruyama Kanji, unseated members of the tenth division, paused outside the office. They had paperwork to deliver but the strange conversation on the other side of the door halted them. They gave each other confused looks. The officials could be strange at times but right now they were not too sure what to make of this.

"Will you hurry up?"

"I'm trying, Captain. Stop moving around so much. Who knew you would be so squeamish."

"Just pull it out. And I'm not squeamish."

"I would, if you would hold still... Ah I almost had it, Captain. Stop moving! You've had worse stuff done to you and you didn't even bat an eyelid."

"There's something stuck in it, Matsumoto, how can I be okay with that? – Ouch, I said pull it out, not rip it apart!"

Sendai raised an eyebrow and mouthed, 'What on earth,' to his partner. Kanji just shrugged.

"Matsumoto... oww! Stop jerking it around like that. I can feel everything your doing! I don't see why it's so difficult, you just grab and pull."

"I'm trying to. This isn't as easy as it looks; it's slippery."

There was a short moment of silence in which Sendai and Kanji's imaginations ran wild. Then,

"Stop moving!"

"Augh, just hurry up!"

"What are they doing in there?" Sendai wondered aloud. He was completely baffled by the conversation. You could never quite tell with those two.

The other man was about to answer but closed it with a snap when Hitsugaya's voice rang out again.

"Matsumoto, pull it out, just pull it out."

"Relax, Captain-"

"How can I relax when I have this huge thing stuck in me?"

"It's not that big. Yes, I got it... No, wait."

" Matsumoto, get that thing out of me now!"

The two couldn't take anymore of this. Pull what out? Just what exactly was going on in there? Gathering up all of their courage, they nodded to each other before Kanji raised his fist to knock on the door.

"Come in." Rangiku called after a moment.

Kanji slid the door open slowly, trying not to appear too curious. However, as soon as they opened the door the piles of paperwork that they were both carrying dropped to the floor with loud thuds. They thought that they were used to the strangeness of their captain and lieutenant, but they had no words for this. Captain Hitsugaya was lying on his stomach on the floor clutching one of the couch cushions to his chest with white knuckles. Lieutenant Matsumoto was sitting cross legged behind him with his foot in her lap. She held a pair of tweezers in her hand and a blood stained towel rested under his foot.

"Um..." Kanji was at a loss for words.

"Hi guys." Rangiku chirped merrily as if this was normal behaviour for a captain and lieutenant. "Would you believe what Captain did to himself?"

"Matsumoto..." Toushiro growled warningly.

"W-what happened, sir?" Sendai asked, obviously concerned.

"I stepped on a piece of glass, nothing big." the white haired boy answered.

Rangiku hit him softly on the head. "He wasn't wearing his waraji, as usual, and the glass got stuck in his foot."

"They're not blind, Matsumoto, they can see what's happening." he grumbled.

Sendai cocked his head, "He lost all of his waraji?"

Rangiku's eyes sparkled mischievously, "Yep, all of them."

"Will you three stop talking about me like I'm not in the room?" Toushiro grumbled.

Kanji couldn't hold back a small chuckle. So, that was what she had been doing in his room last night. He had been walking past when she had jumped out of the captain's quarters with a grin like a cat that had eaten a canary on her face. "Well, that shouldn't be much of a problem; you should know where they are lieutenant."

Toushiro paused and looked over his shoulder at Rangiku. Her eyes had gone wide and she was staring at Kanji like he had grown wings. She chuckled nervously.

"Matsumoto, what does he mean by you should know where they are?"

"I have no idea, Captain." she shrugged and picked up the tweezers again.

"Oh don't you? Because I find it really strange that the day after you warn me about losing my waraji all of them go missing."

Kanji grinned apologetically. "Sorry, Lieutenant." he muttered.

Rangiku sighed. "It's alright I was going to tell him anyway."

"Tell me what, Matsumoto?"

"I stole your waraji."

Everyone counted down in their heads; three, two, one.

"WHAT?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT, MATSUMOTO, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Toushiro exploded. The room's temperature suddenly plummeted.

"I was thinking that I needed to teach you a lesson."

"So you stole all of my shoes? Very mature, Matsumoto, I applaud you. And now look what's happened, I can't even feel my foot now."

"Okay, that part was an accident. And I was going to give you back your shoes at the end of the day anyway."

Toushiro growled, "It doesn't matter when you were going to give them back. It matters that you stole them in the first place."

"If you didn't leave them lying around then I wouldn't have had to. You do know how difficult it is to get new shoes for you. And if you insist on leaving then lying around everywhere soon you will end up losing all of them. I was trying to make you understand how that felt."

He grit his teeth. "I'm not a child, Matsumoto, if I don't like wearing my shoes inside the division then leave me be. You have no right to steal my possessions to 'teach me a lesson'."

Kanji and Sendai shot each other uncomfortable looks. This argument looked like it was going to get pretty heated. They did not want to be anywhere around the captain when he got mad. How did the lieutenant deal with it on a daily basis? They quietly excused themselves, not sure if the officials even noticed them leave. They were too busy glaring at each other to notice anything.

"I know you're not a child, Captain, but you act like one."

"I don't go around playing tricks on people. "

"You know I think that's what you're really angry about. You're not mad at me because I wanted to teach you a lesson; you're mad because I actually got you."

He snorted. "No, I'm mad because you went behind my back, and took such drastic, unnecessary measures to tell me something you could have done with simple words."

"You wouldn't have listened."

"I would have if it really bothered you that much."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, will you stop leaving your waraji lying around?"

"I might have before you decided to take this turn-about way and steal my possessions. Now, I'm not so sure."

"So you're going to continue leaving your shoes lying around, even after all of this, just to spite me? That seems even more childish than what I did." she stated incredulously.

He huffed, "Just take out the glass already. I really can't feel y foot."

Rangiku sighed. She knew that was his way of saying he was going to try to remember to pick up his shoes. He would never voice the fact that he was in the wrong of course. She went back to his foot but after several minutes she threw down the tweezers in frustration.

"This isn't coming out, Captain. It's in there pretty deep."

"What?"

"Did you stomp on the glass or something? I don't know how it got lodged in that far."

"I was running, all my weight was on that foot." he sighed and sat up. "Can you bring me to The Fourth, Matsumoto? I seriously can't feel my foot."

("\(^.^)/")

After fifteen minutes, a bottle of antiseptic and five stitches later Toushiro sat on the edge of a stool his foot wrapped in a thick layer of gauze and bandages. Rangiku stood behind him chewing her bottom lip. Thankfully it was a quiet day at The Fourth that day, so Isane was the one who attended to Toushiro. Apparently taking out the shard of glass from Toushiro's foot took more than a pair of tweezers. It had taken her less than two minutes to draw out the _inch and a_ _half_ long shard and the rest to clean it out and stitch the wound up. Rangiku almost fainted when she saw the size of the piece of glass. She had really managed to injure her Captain. It was minor and inadvertent but still. He was going to kill her when they got back to the office.

Isane was tidying up the room as she spoke to them. "How does that feel, Captain Hitsugaya?"

He swung his leg back and forth. "It still hurts a little."

"You're foot will be sore for a while. That piece of glass went in really deep. You were lucky it didn't cut any tendons or hit bone."

"See, Captain, it's not that bad." Rangiku tried to console him, hoping that he would not be too mad at her.

He ignored her and continued to test out his bandaged foot.

"However," Isane continued, "You shouldn't be walking on it too much and it will take at least three days for the swelling to go down. You should change the bandages at least twice a day as well."

He nodded, "Thank- you Kotetsu." before hopping off the stool and turning to Rangiku. "Just so you know; my foot won't be able to fit into my waraji with these bandages." With that he calmly hobbled out of the room.

Rangiku slapped her forehead and groaned.

"What was that about Rangiku?" Isane asked, staring confused at Rangiku

"The whole reason he ended up cutting his foot was because I was trying to get him to wear his shoes!"

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**No one wins when these two get at it. Heh, well here's my attempt at another light, kinda funny fic. I plan to do a couple more of these as soon as I get some ideas :/ now that I finally got the time... kinda. I'm looking for work so this 'free' period may not last too long... **

**Yeah, so I hope it wasn't too OOC just trying to emphasise one of Toushiro's little quirks I read about on the wiki page. I thought it was cute so I let my mind wonder and this fic was the result. Hope you all enjoyed it :)**

**Review and tell me what you think**

**-Mymomomo**


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